Back in the Saddle

First of all, I apologize for the long hiatus, but until I had something to write about I figured that silence was golden. In any case, I'm back, and have a few things I can share with you, namely that the incident review is complete and I'm back on flying status.


As mentioned in the last post, I was a crew member on an aircraft that was involved in an "incident". An incident differs from an accident in that an accident is fully defined by the Federal Aviation Administration and requires specific reporting. An incident is simply something out of the ordinary. Basically, if something happens that damages the aircraft of property, or someone is injured or dies, that's an accident. Anything from a blown tire to turning the wrong way could be an incident.

When an incident occurs, as long as no Federal Aviation Regulations were violated, the depth of the investigation is up to the company. Naturally any good company would want to thoroughly investigate any incident for a number of reasons, not the least of which is to obtain an understanding of what went wrong so that repeat occurrences can be avoided. Having now been through such a review, I can tell you first-hand that my company investigates incidents VERY thoroughly.

The first step for a crew involved in an incident involves submitting an ASAP, or Aviation Safety Action Partnership, report. This, along with a NASA Aviation Safety Reporting System report does two things: the report gives the company a starting report for the incident review, and it provides some protection against fines and license revocations from the FAA, UNLESS the violation was willful. For example, let's say an aircraft was given a specific taxi instruction to turn left at an intersection, and then aircraft turned right instead. That potentially is a violation of an ATC instruction, so an incident has occurred, and the aircrew will file the ASAP and NASA ASRS reports. During the incident review let's say that the cockpit voice recorder shows that the aircrew heard the instruction to turn left, but said "screw that, let's turn right because this is a shorter route". That is obviously a willful violation and regardless of the filed reports, no protection against fines or license revocation is provided. However, if the cockpit voice recorder proves that the aircrew simply misunderstood the instruction and did not willfully turn the wrong way, than the aircrew can rest assured that their license (and careers) are not in jeopardy, so they are more likely to completely cooperate with the investigation. The ASAP and NASA ASRS programs have really done a lot to help improve aviation safety over the years.

In my case, the incident involved the loss of of nosewheel steering system at a critical phase of flight, landing. Once the aircraft touches down while rolling faster than about 80 knots, the rudder is effective and even if the nosewheel steering does not work, you can still maintain directional control to keep the aircraft heading straight down the runway. Once the aircraft slows below 80 knots, the Captain must take control of steering using the tiller control on his side of the cockpit. If nosewheel steering is not available then the aircraft is not going to track straight and will be influenced by wind direction and speed, runway conditions, differences in braking pressure, differential thrust from the engines, etc. Once you get stopped, you are also not going anywhere since you can't control steering, and will likely have to be towed unless you can get the steering system to reset.

As I mentioned, the company investigated this incident very thoroughly, taking about three weeks. During this time the flight data recorder was analyzed to determine if we flew the aircraft properly within limits and according to Standard Operating Procedure (SOP). The cockpit voice recorder was analyzed to see if we were making calls and coordinating flight deck actions as required by SOP. Again, had the CVR indicated we had said something like "gee, let's disable the steering and see how the landing goes", I'd likely be starting a new blog titled "Fledgling Ditch Digging". In this instance the investigation showed that we were operating the aircraft according to SOP and within limits, so the real issue was why did the steering fail. Unfortunately the jury is still out on that one.

Once the investigation is complete you are not simply sent back to work with the wave of a magic wand. Number one you have been sitting at home next to the phone for three weeks biting your finger nails and number two, you were involved in an incident which involved some abnormal occurrence that could potentially happen again in the future. Both of these dictate that some time in the simulator would be prudent. When you only have 70 hours in this aircraft as I do, three weeks sitting idle leads to a lot of rust, so the simulator training was very welcome. Additionally, loss of nosewheel steering on landing is not something that the training department normally trains crews for, so the training session gives the training folks the opportunity to recreate the exact wind and runway conditions and simulate this incident, not only with the crew involved in the incident, but in future sessions with other crews. I can tell you after having experienced this failure in real life and many times in the simulator that you have only a very few seconds to react. Depending on the wind and runway conditions, even if the crew takes the proper actions immediately there is simply no guarantee that you are going to get the aircraft stopped near the centerline of the runway. That being said I know of one aircrew that is now VERY prepared should this occur again!

So, having been through this event I now have a greater respect for the incident review process and the depth in which each incident is reviewed. I also have a very great appreciation for how well the company understands the emotions involved when a crew experiences something like this, and how they take care to ensure that you are fully prepared prior to returning you to flying status. Once the investigation was complete I thought I was completely ready to kick the tires, light the fires, jump back in the right seat and "get her done", but the company was smart enough to know that I would very likely still be a little shaken on my first few flights, so they paired me with a very experienced, calm and understanding line check airman. Sure enough, I was more nervous than I would have thought, and initially found myself second guessing myself a lot and simply not flying as well as I should. After eight legs in two days of flying, that's behind me now and I feel ready to get back to learning, put the incident behind me while chalking up what I've learned from having been through the experience. Experience is why I wanted to join this profession, but not all experiences are good. As my mentor Gene once told me, I will gain more experience and see more sky in a few months with an airline than many pilots will experience in a lifetime. That truth of that prediction has become abundantly clear in the two months of my airline flying career, making me wonder what the next year or two will bring. Strap in, stay tuned, and come along with me as I find out.

Travel safe.